Lewdog
Gold Member
I'll say the same thing now as I said when Bill Clinton was being impeached. He lied to Congress. I don't care if he lied about what he had for breakfast, or if it was a lie about dealing arms to African warlords (yeah that is just an example), a lie under oath is a lie under oath. the POTUS should be held to a higher standard than anyone in this country. They are supposed to represent the very best we have to offer. If a normal citizen lies under oath, it's a felony and jail time. Period. So why should he get a lighter sentence than anyone else?
1) He didn't lie to Congress. Congress never asked him about sex.
2) It's questionable about whether or not he lied to a court. He was asked if he had sex with Monica. He said no. He didn't have "sex" with monica, he got fellatio from Monica. A lot of guys DON'T consider a blow job to be sex.
3) There are no cases of anyone going to prison for lying about sex in a civil case. None whatsoever.
But the fact that you stupid right Wingers are so butthurt about this TWENTY YEARS LATER that you are willing to give the nukes to a Nazi Game Show Host says how fucked up your thinking is.
Oath to Congress or oath to a court case? Aren't you splitting hairs here?
A blow job isn't sex? Hell it's in the name, oral sex? Once again... fucking use two brain cells.
It doesn't matter what you lie about while under oath, it's still a felony.
NEVER? Wrong.
The best answer is that civil perjury is certainly illegal, but rarely prosecuted. Some lawyer-pundits initially said that it is never prosecuted. But one month into the scandal Stephen Gillers, an NYU law professor writing in the New YorkTimes,offered eight instances of the Clinton Justice Department prosecuting people for lying in civil cases. Gillers also found a 1994 federal circuit court opinion which said that lying in a civil case is no better than lying in a criminal case--both are serious matters. (A rhetorical flourish by one circuit court is not the law of the land, but it is worth noting.) The Washington Post followed with a story saying there have been at least 25 federal prosecutions of civil perjury (the Postgives no time frame). Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot uses the number 12. Senator Orrin Hatch cites 10.
But the editors of the Weekly Standard think they've found a case analogous to Clinton's which ended up in a perjury prosecution. A Boise Veterans Affairs psychiatrist confessed her love to a soldier under her care then proceeded to perform oral sex on him. They had an affair. Several months later the soldier brought a civil case for sexual abuse against the psychiatrist. (That's right--Clinton says he didn't have sex when receiving oral sex; this fellow says he was sexually abused when he received the same.) The psychiatrist denied the oral sex but taped phone conversations suggested otherwise. The psychiatrist eventually pleaded guilty to perjury in the civil case and last month she was sentenced to six months of house arrest.
Is Civil Perjury Punishable?